Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council wrongly decided his wife was not eligible for six weeks of free care when she was discharged from hospital. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to justify us investigating.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council wrongly decided his wife, Mrs X, was not eligible for six weeks of free care when she was discharged from hospital. Mr X says the Council did not provide them with details of the care package or financial assessment until one month after care started.
2. Mr X says if they had known Mrs X would not receive free care for six weeks they would not have agreed to the level of care she received. He wants the Council to reduce the amount owed.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X.
5. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

6. Mr X says he and Mrs X knew that Mrs X would have to self-fund her care and this was discussed with a Council officer before care started. However, Mr X says they believed the first six weeks of care would be free, as this was the case for Mrs X’s previous hospital discharge. Mr X says that if they had known Mrs X had to self-fund her care from the start, they would only have agreed to one visit a day and not the four visits which were in Mrs X’s care plan.
7. We will not investigate this complaint. The fact that Mrs Y did not pay for the first six weeks of care after a previous hospital discharge did not mean it was reasonable to assume the subsequent care arranged by the Council would also be free. The delay in receiving a copy of the care package does not change this because both Mr and Mrs X were aware of the frequency of the care visits as they were taking place. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify us investigating.

Back to top

Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to justify us investigating.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman